Informant had no evidence Clinton benefited from uranium sale: Democrats

Last updated on July 21st, 2023 at 05:33 pm

By Warren Strobel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An informant whom House Republicans have said could reveal a link between a 2010 sale of U.S. uranium supplies and donations to the Clinton Foundation provided no evidence of that during a four-hour interview with congressional staff last month, Democrats said on Thursday.

The informant, lobbyist William D. Campbell, “provided no evidence of a quid pro quo involving Secretary (Hillary) Clinton or the Clinton Foundation and no evidence that Secretary Clinton was involved in, or improperly influenced” the uranium sale, the Democrats said in a five-page summary of the Feb. 7 interview.

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Democrats said they were releasing a summary of the session because majority Republicans, who control the panels, refused to provide a full transcript.

“Mr. Campbell identified no evidence that Secretary Hillary Clinton, President Bill Clinton, or anyone from the Obama Administration took any actions as a result of Russian requests or influence,” the summary says.

At issue is the sale — during Clinton’s tenure as U.S. Secretary of State — of Uranium One, a Canadian company that controlled roughly 20 percent of U.S. uranium supplies, to a Russian firm.

Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have pressed for a fresh investigation of the issue, alleging that Clinton orchestrated the sale in return for donations to the Clinton Foundation, and was unduly influenced by Moscow.

Democrats call the charges an effort to distract from ongoing investigations into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. The White House and Kremlin deny any collusion.

Campbell’s attorney, Victoria Toensing, did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment about his congressional interview.

Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis, in a television interview last October, said the informant, whom he did not name then, “would be able to link” the Uranium One sale to financial gain for Hillary Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton.

A DeSantis spokeswoman did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

The Uranium One sale was unanimously approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which comprises representatives of nine U.S. government agencies. When the issue was voted on, the State Department was represented not by Clinton, but by a lower-level official.

Five committees in the U.S. House and Senate previously looked into the issue and found no evidence that Clinton was behind CFIUS’ approval of the deal, according to congressional records.

Campbell was interviewed by Republican and Democratic staffers from the House Oversight and Intelligence committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay and Mark Hosenball. Editing by John Walcott and Bernadette Baum)